How Big Oil Brainwashes Kids | Newsbroke (AJ+)

Hey guys. Remember school? The place Betsy
DeVos is auctioning for parts? Well, these days school is different: not only have
apples, bananas and milk been replaced with Snappl,e Pepsi and Domino’s Pizza, but the fossil fuel industry is giving lesson plans to teachers. Yaaaaaay. It’s 2017,
and in case you hadn’t noticed, plans for the apocalypse are back on! Dakota access
pipeline? Back on! Keystone XL pipeline? back on! The Paris Climate Agreement?
Backing out. We’re getting out. In his nearly 30 minute speech on leaving the
Paris climate agreement, president Trump managed to not mention the phrases
climate change or global warming once. but he did mention the word jobs 18
times, warning what would happen to them if the US did try to stop climate change. the American family will suffer the consequences in the form of lost jobs /
lost jobs / lost jobs / 2.7 million lost jobs yeah think of all the lost jobs the
commitments of curbing climate change would cause: lost jobs in evacuation
services, sunscreen manufacturing and gondoleering, when Manhattan is just a
series of canals. how can Americans be so easily lulled into the idea that jobs
are somehow at odds with the survival of the planet? well it all begins with
education and how kids are are not being taught about climate change in schools
and what they’re learning and how they’re learning it is of course
political this year nine state legislatures have introduced bills on
climate education under the guise of academic freedom
the laws encourage teachers to quote teach the controversy when it comes to
certain subjects like climate change the controversy being maybe climate change
isn’t caused by burning huge amounts of fossil fuels even though 97% of climate
scientists know it is which is like catching your boyfriend red-handed
creeping with the girl next door but being encouraged to teach shaggy side of
the story now kids she caught him on the sofa on the counter she even caught him
on camera but he says and I quote it wasn’t me so gotta teach the controversy
who’s behind these bills well a lot of them have origins in Alec the American
Legislative change counsel a bill creating body
whose members include state legislators and energy company bigwigs from
ExxonMobil and Koch Industries by getting behind teach the controversy
bills fossil fuel companies can give kids the impression that the jury is
still out when it comes to climate change and you can convince kids of
anything I used to think you could get pregnant from swimming in the gym pool I
just found out that’s not true but beyond suggesting that teachers teach
controversy where there is none the fossil fuel industry is giving teachers
lesson plans that deliberately create confusion about the causes of climate
change take the Heartland Institute there are
climate denial it’s organization with strong ties to the Koch Industries Exxon
Mobil and Alec earlier this year the Heartland Institute sent 25,000 packages
to public schools called why scientists disagree about global warming it
includes a DVD that exposes students to the denialist theory that the climate
has always been changing and to prove that it spends way too long wondering
how the Vikings of Greenland felt when they were wiped out by changing
temperatures they must have wondered what happened to our climate system I
mean did we do something to cause this they’ll be really really useful to learn
from the Vikings example how do we go about coping with big natural changes in
the Sun and the earth climate system yeah and while we’re learning from the
Vikings how do they go about coping with all that rape and what’s with the hats
actually I’ve got a lot of questions for the Vikings listen if you’re going to
pick an example from history to sow doubt about climate change maybe don’t
pick one from a place that’s literally disappearing before our very eyes
because of climate change by the way that expert right there is Willy soon
whose research has been well documented as being funded by Koch Industries
ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute the other Brainiac featured on
the DVD is his research partner David legates who leaves kids with the final
thought that even though the vast majority of climate scientists agree
that human activity is causing global warming never stop searching for the
real truth if we’ve closed their mind if we closed the doors we are now shutting
ourselves out from the real truth which is what science is all about after all
Oh God really these guys are like the OJ Simpson
lawyers of man-made climate change forget the mountains of evidence against
my client the real killer is still out there if the climate is hot man-made it
is not if the winters are still cold I’m not sold
if Greenland has icicles the climate is cyclic closed it’s not just creating
confusion around climate change though kids are also subject to science lessons
directly handed down from the fossil fuel industry itself in several states
teachers receive free materials that offer a sunny one-sided picture of the
coal and oil industry that help them turn away from less fun lessons like the
one on black lung or sea-level rise in Oklahoma the Center for Public Integrity
found that a state agency funded by oil and gas producers called the Oklahoma
energy resource board has been crafting and giving teachers pro oil curriculum
like the book series petrol Pete’s adventures complete with a lovable cast
of characters in petrol Ville including petrol paddy and mrs. rig well in one a
book called the big bad dream petrol Pete goes through a day without anything
made from oil he runs to the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair for
school but his toothbrush and comb are missing the soccer balls basketballs and
footballs are all missing what happened to them Pete wondered that was all a
dream all of my petroleum byproducts are back
even my asthma’s back hip hip the oerb also has their own Bill Nye
knockoff named professor Leo who along with his robot friend Piper teaches kids
about things like fracking it came from a process known as hydraulic fracturing
also known as fracking hmm now let’s engage the science Oh theater kids and professor Leo pushes
the idea that fracking is totally safe and doesn’t say emit methane a far
stronger greenhouse gas than co2 and a huge contributor to climate change
hydraulic fracturing is a proven safe and common approach for producing tight
formations fracturing point is 90% water nine point five percent sand
and point five percent other additives additives that are totally safe here
check it out I would not do that if I were you
oh please Piper I’ll do whatever the frak I want and while all of this is laughable the
oerb has spent a very serious forty million dollars on lesson plans to reach
K through 12 students 9,000 copies of petrol Pete’s big bad dream have been
sent to schools and libraries across the state helping kids believe there’s
nothing questionable about fossil fuels fracking or a classmate who’s clearly 45
and still in the second grade the oil industry isn’t the only culprit though
big coal is also in schools the industry funded American coal foundation set up
in 1981 has the sole purpose of getting pro coal lessons into classrooms there’s
coal activity books coal bingo a coal wordsearch even ideas for field trips
called students in a coal mine okay kids it’s
the year 1872 and there are no child labor laws so grab your helmets in your
pickaxes and remember if your canary dies run the American coal foundation
even has an elementary school lesson plan where students learn the wonders of
mining by mining the chips in a chocolate chip cookie which according to
the lesson plan reinforces the skills of critical thinking cooperative learning
and knowing how to accept delicious bribes mmm and sure you might be
thinking but isn’t learning about coal mining and oil drilling even from a
biased bowtie-wearing actors still technically learning science and geology
well the problem is sometimes the materials don’t even meet state
education standards in Illinois the coal education program distributed to
hundreds of teachers a year was recently condemned in a state report for not
being balanced regarding coals environmental impacts the report also
said that the high school lesson plan met zero science or engineering Sanders
zero or is the coal education program boasted the number shaped like a piece
of coal it’s kindergarten lobbying and yeah even though one study showed a vast
majority of teachers know better than to use this sponsored curriculum the
efforts to essentially brainwash kids with glorified PR is distressing so
rather than teaching the controversy over climate change which isn’t
controversial what about teaching the controversy over the forms of energy
warming the planet at an alarming pace like greenhouse gas emissions cancerous
carcinogens acid rain contaminated groundwater earthquakes from fracking
coal companies cutting safety measures sea levels rising massive crop failure
dead oceans erratic weather and the fact that soon there’ll be no more almond
milk in my latte and so for the sake of academic freedom here is a free lesson
plan for all the teachers and students out there
courtesy of news broke using petrol VLEs very own petrol Pete
petrol Pete’s big bad reality check it was nighttime in petrol ville oklahoma
and petrol peaked had just come home from a hard day’s work on the oil
refinery where he has spent the last 30 years oh boy I sure am tired why am I
always tired Pete asked his dog and best friend Liam Pete bent down to pet Liam
and as he did Pete started hacking and coughing likely because the tar built up
in his lungs from years of working with crude oil had left him without the
physical strength required for petting oh well better go brush my teeth
said Pete Pete walked over to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his
face but when he got there something was wrong the faucet was spitting out fire
instead of water due to the increased fracking in the town of Petro Ville ah
man I guess I’m gonna have to skip brushing this week again said Petro Pete
he looked at his reflection in the mirror and noticed that the tumor on his
face was getting bigger and bigger just as cases of deadly skin cancer were
getting bigger and bigger due to vast ozone depletion dam this rash just won’t
heal I’ll put some more ointment on it as he smeared his melanoma with Vaseline
he turned to his dog Liam and said did you know that Vaseline is made from
petroleum isn’t that amazing Liam just shrugged at
Pete the cruel irony that the cancer was being treated with the very product that
created it was lost on Pete but it was not lost on Liam and so they both headed
to bed but for some reason Pete couldn’t sleep he began to think of all the
things he had that were made from petroleum there’s my calm my soccer ball
and my oxygen tank these days Pete mostly used his oxygen tank but
just then the entire room began to shake violently it was an earthquake caused by
the ceaseless fracking in petrol ville ever since science teachers stopped
teaching the dangers of fracking everything started toppling over his
computer and his bookcase his drawers and finally his oxygen tank which fell
right on top of Liam’s head and killed him freeing him from the slow painful
death he would have had from years of drinking polluted tap water suddenly the
quake cracked the water pipes and being that the pipes were filled with fire set
petrol Pete’s entire house ablaze this is a bad dream this is a bad dream
Pete repeated to himself and as he was being consumed by the flames
Pete realized that in a way his body was also a petroleum by-product and that his
teacher mrs. rig well would be proud and that made him feel good but not as much
as the fire on his skin made him feel bad the end that’s a damn good sketch yes that is
our animator Marissa’s amazing work thank you so much for watching news
broke again and subscribe this is the time to subscribe and we love you so
talk to us let us know what kind of climate education you all received and
was it sufficient did you ever mind for a cookie what kind
of education do you think kids today should be receiving what should they be
learning about climate change let us know in the comments and see you next
time